RALEIGH, N.C. - The Virginia Tech swimming and diving squad finished first in 18 of 32 events to sweep NC State as the No. 23-nationally ranked women won by a score of 184-116, while the men edged out the Wolfpack, 155-145, on Saturday afternoon at Casey Natatorium.

With the win, the women move up to 8-2 (2-1 ACC), and the men (6-3, 1-2 ACC) earn their first ACC victory of the year after two weeks ago finishing ahead of then-No. 16 North Carolina and Clemson to win their first-ever Nike Cup.

"Today was all about racing and competing," head coach Ned Skinner said. "It really wasn't about putting the fastest time on the board coming off Thanksgiving. We had a tough week of work getting back into the groove. We just wanted to come here to Raleigh and compete against a real good team. Our senior leadership showed through today, and the divers took care of business. It ended up being a real nice win for the team."

On the women's side, Jessica Botzum (Raleigh, N.C.), Sarah Milton (Plano, Texas) and Sara Smith (McGaheysville, Va.) were the leaders as they each won multiple individual events. The day though began with Botzum, Smith, Megan Newell (Ashburn, Va.) and Jordan McHorney (Virginia Beach, Va.) winning the 200 medley relay with a facility record time of 1:44.12, followed by Lauren Ritter (Sterling, Va.) taking first in the 1,000-yard freestyle.

Botzum went three-for-three in her individual events as she took first in the 100 breaststroke, the 200 breaststroke and the 200 IM. In the process, she broke the facility record for both breaststroke events at 1:02.56 and 2:15.78, respectively.

Smith won the 50 and 100 freestyle races, while Milton finished ahead of the Wolfpack in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. Kelly deMarrais (Bernardsville, N.J.) added a win in the 200 backstroke to give the H2Okies a comfortable victory.

For the men though, the meet went down to the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. NC State was ahead 143-140, but seniors Scott Beard (Chesterfield, Va.) and Kaan Tayla (Ankara, Turkey) made sure the Wolfpack had nothing to celebrate about as they along with Ian deToll (Culpeper, Va.) and Jake Bova (Roanoke, Va.) won the race at 3:03.14, about three seconds ahead of NC State's squad, who also finished behind Tech's second relay team.

The four men began the day in one of the tightest races of the meet, the 200 medley relay, by winning at 1:32.17, exactly .70 seconds ahead of the Wolfpack for the much needed points.

Beard, a two-time 2007-08 ACC Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week, added crucial points in the team's victory by placing first in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly. Tayla also proved victorious in the 50 and 100 freestyle events, while Mikey McDonald (Annandale, Va.) continued to shine by winning the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events.

With the sweep, Virginia Tech has concluded the fall portion of the 2007-08 schedule and will at the end of December head down to Florida for two weeks of training before resuming the dual meet schedule by visiting UNC Wilmington on Saturday, Jan. 12.